8508 Connecticut Ave. Re Birth Certificate

8508 Connecticut Ave.

4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1408 sq. feet, multiple occupancy

Built in 1910, Colonial style

**

Newburgh Heights—Slavic Village

In the late 1790s, a log cabin built at the intersection of the current Broadway Ave. and East 93^rd began the settlement of what is now the Newburgh Heights neighborhood of the Slavic Village in Cleveland. At its inception, the area was its own village, called Newburgh. Newburgh even vied for--but lost to Cleveland--the distinction of being named the county seat in the late 1820s.

In the mid-1800s, significant historical events occurred that led to the neighborhood becoming the place that it is today. The Czech presence in the area began to increase; immigration of the Czech people boomed during this time because of the Prague Upheavals, an early Czech national movement quashed by the Habsburg military. The Polish presence increased as well, with many laborers working in stone quarries in the area. And, Cleveland began annexing pockets of Newburgh--with Newburgh’s citizens’ cooperation and encouragement. The gradual absorption of Newburgh into Cleveland took ninety years.

The first rolling mill also began operating in the area. The mill employed many Czech and Polish immigrants, as well as English-speaking workers, but tension between the Eastern European groups and the English-speakers led to union clashes. Strikes in the late 1800s sparked violence and arson with the intention of intimidating immigrants into not crossing picket lines. New Polish immigrants were recruited to work in the mill from the east coast. Eventually, the issue was resolved, and the union lost power--but the base immigrant population of the area was more prominent than ever.

The Czech and Polish immigrants’ culture colored the neighborhood. Churches like St. Wenceslaus, built in 1867, and St. Stanislaus, built in 1888, served as centers for the community. Large businesses and construction projects by Eastern European immigrants sprang up in the early to mid-1900s, leading to the richly varied neighborhood that exists today. Now a community that celebrates its past and plans for the future, bike trails, art installations, and festivals are all prominent features of the neighborhood.

The People

During the early part of the twentieth century, the residents of the multi-family dwelling at 8508 Connecticut Ave. were, in many ways, typical of those who lived in the area. The neighborhood’s residents worked blue collar jobs--many at the nearby mills--and most of the population was of Polish descent. At the time, the property was divided into two living spaces: upstairs and downstairs.

One Polish resident of the property, Joseph Solek, was naturalized as an American citizen while he lived at 8508 Connecticut Ave., in 1924. He immigrated through New York in 1900, as a seventeen-year-old. Solek was a factory machinist who lived in the building with his wife, Helen, also a Polish immigrant, his daughter, Mildred, and a boarder, another Polish immigrant named Powell Sulek. We know that this group lived in the building through at least 1930.

The other occupants of the house at that time were second generation immigrants from Austria and Germany, Stephen and Olga Fisceri. Stephen was the conductor of a street railroad, which may well have been the interurban Cleveland and Youngstown Railroad, which eventually became Shaker Heights Rapid Transit.

Ten years later, the structure was home to people of English and Swiss descent. Rose Nash occupied the downstairs apartment with her son, Robert, who was a recorder at the steel mill. Her grandkids, Robert Jr., Audry, and John, also lived there with them. Both Robert and Rose were widows. Upstairs, Elmer Reinhardt lived with his wife Edna, their daughter Beverly, and a son from Edna’s previous marriage, Miller. Elmer was an accountant at the oil plant.

Harvesting the wood at 8508 Connecticut! 

The Wood

The house at 8508 Connecticut Ave. was built of Southern Yellow Pine, the strongest softwood lumber. A popular choice for home-building because of its strength, ability to hold fasteners, and its resistance to wear, Southern Yellow Pine played a key role in building during the Industrial Revolution. Europe imported vast amounts of Southern Yellow Pine in the 19^th century.

It’s a high density wood that grows in a band from East Texas all the way to Virginia. It has been used in home construction since the 1800s and is also used extensively in wooden roller coasters, docks, and utility poles.

There are four main species: shortleaf, longleaf, loblolly, and slash. Each of these species has similar characteristics, but can demonstrate variation in color and grain. Color ranges from light orange to dark red, and can even sometimes be a cream color. The grain pattern might be wavy or knotty. Sometimes its long needles are used in holiday decorations when it’s cut.

A popular wood still in abundant use today, Southern Yellow Pine grows rapidly and is renewed more quickly than it is harvested. Growing it does not endanger old growth forests.

3592 E. 149th St. ReBirth Certificate

3592 E. 149^th Street

Built in 1953

Single-family dwelling: three bedrooms, two bathrooms

The Place

The makeup of the neighborhood of Mount Pleasant has undergone both ethnic and socioeconomic shifts since it was first settled in 1826.

The first residents hailed from the Isle of Man, near Ireland. Then, in the late 19^th century an influx of Jewish settlers from Bavaria arrived, only to move out again in the 1930s. Other immigrant groups in the 19^th and early 20^th century included Czechs and Italians.

In 1921, Mount Pleasant became a neighborhood instead of a rural community: streets were mapped and trees planted along Bartlett Ave., just half a block away from 3799 E. 149^th St.

Now, it’s a predominantly African-American community. The first African-American settlers came to the community during World War I. In the 1940s and 1950s, African-Americans became the majority ethnic group in the area.

The neighborhood’s socioeconomic makeup has been in flux since the mid-20^th century. Philip Richards, an African-American writer and professor who grew up in the area, wrote about the population shifts in the neighborhood in the 1950s and 1960s, as seen by his own family: “[Richards’ parents]…departed Mount Pleasant as it filled with black newcomers from the inner city. Years earlier, when they had moved into Mount Pleasant, both the Eastern European immigrants and the black middle class were leaving.”¹

Now, Mount Pleasant is an area with a rich history and hope for the future. Many positive programs have been initiated, including a painting program to revitalize existing structures, home ownership workshops, an energy efficiency program, and other community outreach through Mount Pleasant NOW. Luke Easter Park and the Zelma Watson George Community Center also provide opportunities for community building in Mount Pleasant.

The People

The house from which your [table/countertop ] was made was built in 1953, a time when racial tension was a prominent issue for the denizens of Cleveland. Phillip Richards wrote about his experience coming of age in Mount Pleasant in the 1960s, and we can imagine that those who lived in the house had similar experiences.

Richards attended elementary school in a mostly white part of town and then went to Alexander Hamilton Junior High School in Mount Pleasant. As he grew up, he struggled against his anger even as it was provoked by seemingly everyone around him--black or white. He found solace in academia and is now an English professor at Colgate University. You can read more about his experiences in the Cleveland Magazine article from 2006² or in his book, An Integrated Boyhood: Coming of Age in White Cleveland.

April McClellan-Copeland, a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, recently participated in a multimedia series³ that takes a look at Mount Pleasant’s past and present. She fondly remembers her childhood on 138^th St., recalling family parties and playing outside with the large number of children who lived on her block. She spoke of the respect for neighbors that was characteristic of that close-knit community.

Tommy LiPuma, legendary Cleveland music producer and Verve label head, also grew up in Mount Pleasant, very near where the house once stood. The first record he made was the O’Jays early regional hit, “Lipstick Traces⁴.” LiPuma continually gives back to his hometown, donating funds to the Cleveland Art Museum and to Cuyahoga Community College.

The Wood

The house at 3799 E. 149^th Street was built of Southern Yellow Pine, the strongest softwood lumber. A popular choice for home-building because of its strength, ability to hold fasteners, and its resistance to wear, Southern Yellow Pine played a key role in building during the Industrial Revolution. Europe imported vast amounts of Southern Yellow Pine in the 19^th century.

It’s a high density wood that grows in a band from East Texas all the way to Virginia. It has been used in home construction since the 1800s and is also used extensively in wooden roller coasters, docks, and utility poles.

There are four main species: shortleaf, longleaf, loblolly, and slash. Each of these species has similar characteristics, but can demonstrate variation in color and grain. Color ranges from light orange to dark red, and can even sometimes be a cream color. The grain pattern might be wavy or knotty. Sometimes its long needles are used in holiday decorations when it’s cut.

A popular wood still in abundant use today, Southern Yellow Pine grows rapidly and is renewed more quickly than it is harvested. Growing it does not endanger old growth forests.

Harvesting the Wood!

1 Richards, Philip. “Coming of Age at Alexander Hamilton Junior High School.” Cleveland Magazine. October, 2006.

2 Richards, Philip. “Coming of Age at Alexander Hamilton Junior High School.” Cleveland Magazine. October, 2006.

3 http://www.cleveland.com/mountpleasant/media/

4 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xoh93_the-o-jays-lipstick-traces_music

APOC will be in NYC for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair! In collabo with 44 STEEL!

We are showing the APOC 44 line of tables and benches.

Here is the text from one of the Rebirth Certificates coming with us:

Material Source & Story:

2620 E. 115^th St. Cleveland

The Place: Prior to the 1920s, most Italian immigrants lived in the Big Italy neighborhood, but conflict between other ethnic groups in that area prompted some families to move to communities in nearby areas of Cleveland. The neighborhood from which the wood for your table originated was one such enclave, the seventh of these offshoot communities.

Maintaining cultural and familial ties was of the utmost importance to Italians; many of the immigrants to Cleveland came from the same villages. Hometown societies, as well as strong church communities, allowed them to keep their heritage alive. Though many choose to concentrate on linking Italian immigrants with organized crime, that lifestyle was much more anomalous than usual.

The People: John Ciarlillo was born in 1884 in what was recorded as Sangonni, Italy. Though reference to a village named Sangonni cannot be found, it possibly refers to the Val Sangone, a valley in Piedmont, Italy. He immigrated to the United States as a boy, in 1895.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Ciarlillo lived in the house at 2620 E. 115th Street with his wife, Philomena, and his children, John Jr., Joe, Vincent, Gusty, Peter, and Marie. He was a janitor at Hawken School, which was then a small private school that educated boys from kindergarten through ninth grade. He and his wife died on the same day in 1960. The cause of death is not clear. They are buried at Lake View Cemetery.

The Wood and Metal: Antique Southern Yellow Pine was shipped to Cleveland and other industrial cities from the late 1800's through to the 1930's. This wood is old-growth, solid pine not found in the market today.

44 Steel, and APOC have developed a line of fully customizable furniture for the modern home.

Deconstruction VS Demolition

I’m sure many of the Apoc Blog readers are familiar with demolition, which literally is just knocking down a building when it is beyond repair. Demolishing houses is relatively simple, since they are usually only 2-3 stories high. The process involves a safety plan so that the debris doesn’t affect surrounding areas and people by planning where it falls. Even though it is planned, it’s rather chaotic: the building is collapsed with smashing and rubble. After a building is knocked down, the waste materials are loaded into trucks and transported to the local landfill.

The process of demolition does not take into account the preservation of recyclable materials. Everything is just toppled and piled together, dumped into a truck and taken away to waste and decay in a landfill. Some demolition waste that breaks down in landfills give off hazardous elements and gases, and may contain other hazardous materials. Since most landfills are already over capacity, this only contributes to MORE landfills being created – which is a waste of space and materials, and, as you all well know, is terrible for the environment.

Deconstruction is a great solution to demolition. From the start, deconstruction is considering the possibility of saving materials. The approach is truly green, taking the time to sort out things that can be recycled or reused. If properly organized and carried out, deconstruction can divert up to 90% of materials away from landfills,

Apoc has a successful deconstruction program that utilizes an important source of materials. Reclaiming wood from local, expired homes around Cleveland not only gives back to the planet, but gives back to the community by respecting the history of the buildings and neighborhoods from which the reclaimed wood is sourced.

Be sure to catch the Details Magazine article covering Apoc’s contribution to the Rust Belt Revival.

http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201204/rust-belt-revival-cleveland-ohio

-TB

Check Us Out!

Hello Apoc Blog Readers!

We are very excited to let you know that your favorite local furniture fabricator has been featured in two very well known publications.

March 26th, 2012, the Plain Dealer, a local Cleveland newspaper, featured an article about us on the front page. The article talks about the deconstruction work we do around Cleveland, salvaging valuable materials, and how we're trying to make a difference in our community by creating beautifully designed pieces and installations that have made their way into peoples' homes, local businesses, schools and companies. If you didn't get a chance to read the article, you can catch the online version here.

Apoc is also happy to be featured in an upcoming issue of Details Magazine. Jesse Ashlock of Details Magazine spoke very highly of us on MSNBC recently, and you can catch the link for that in the previous blog post. Keep a look out for the issue!

Here at Apoc, we take pride in our city and what we can do to help it. We're glad to spread the word of helping your community by supporting local businesses, and working towards a sustainable future.

-TB

Cleveland's Revival starts with Deconstruction

Everyone who knows Apoc knows that we use raw, reclaimed materials. Not only are we saving natural materials that are less-commonly used in modern construction, but Cleveland's rich history is saved in each handcrafted piece of furniture. Rare, beautiful woods are recovered along with wood from old growth trees that provide strength and beauty to every thing we create.

How are these materials recovered? Apoc has it's own organized deconstruction crew that target sites out in the city of Cleveland, ready to help tear down expired homes that, if left standing, could potentially endanger citizens. Not only are they helping the city by giving man-power to clean up the area of urban blight, they're helping the environment by deconstructing and finding materials that can be used in the Apoc design shop to create custom furniture. Apoc reclaims these materials, turning waste into an asset.

The Apoc Deconstruction crew at Eddy Road

Some recent deconstruction projects have made it to the news in France in December 2011, highlighting specific East Cleveland locations, like Eddy Road. Nationally, Apoc has been recognized as a reviver of the rust belt by Jesse Ashlock in Details magazine. (watch Jesse Ashlock talk about the Rust Belt Renaissance here on MSNBC).

Tom Hennessy of the Apoc Deconstruction crew is made internationally famous

Cleveland is in a state of revival, progressing from the ground up. The only way we can get back to Cleveland roots and grow is to start with deconstruction. Reclaimed materials and Cleveland history take these custom furniture pieces beyond just 'eco-chic'.


-TB

The Importance of Local Businesses

Giant, global companies seem to dominate the market these days. Huge companies sucking up all of the industry, leaving many of us here at home jobless while these corporations are taking advantage of those living in 3rd-world countries. As a consumer, how do you know that the products that you're buying were created ethically? Who had a hand in it's creation? Where are the materials from? Is the money you're spending on it flowing back into the American economy? Not many of us think about these things when we're in the middle of a purchase - or the beginning and end, for that matter. But these are VERY important questions that every single American should keep in mind...

As of recent, there has been buzz on the movement of 'Going Local'. What does this mean? Why should we? Why is it important?

Lorenzo DiSiena, 69, picks some lettuce in the Kentucky Garden in Ohio City in Cleveland. Photo: Lisa DeJong / The Plain Dealer

'Going Local' means supporting local businesses, whether they are store or markets, local artisans, specialty shops, etc. 'Going Local' also means making sure the materials and products you buy are from the 'homeland', or NOT outsourced (think made in American, NOT made in China).

Superstores, chains and corporations displace just as many jobs as they 'claim' to create. They weed out smaller business making is very difficult for them to compete, causing them to go out of business. "The disappearance of local businesses leaves a social and economic void". Only you as a consumer can fill this void by buying local.

'Going Local' isn't just important on an economic level; local businesses "define our sense of place, but we often forget their survival depends on our patronage". This creates a sense of community that Walmart just CANNOT offer.

Supporting local business changes our thought-process as consumers: while prices may be slightly higher than at Walmart, you're insuring that your community is prosperous, you're keeping economic flow in the country, and you're implementing social change one purchase at a time. There's more of a personal connection to the product, which has a value that is priceless.

At Apoc, we bring you locally hand-crafted products, with reclaimed materials sourced from expired houses right here in Cleveland. By supporting your community, a little piece of it gets to go home with you.

Next time you're going to make a purchase, whether its groceries, jewelry or furniture, consider going local.

- TB

text sources from "Why Local Matters" by Jeff Milchen. www.homegrownelpaso.com

And we're back!

Hello readers and Apoc lovers,

Have you ever wondered WHY reclaimed wood is so important? There are many out there who still aren't aware of the importance this rare, raw material serves to Cleveland. Actually, reclaimed wood is an untapped, invaluable source. Here at Apoc, we understand the value of reclaimed wood, and bring it to you locally with clean, timeless design.

Around the globe, deforestation is destroying a mind-boggling amount of habitats for millions of animals forcing them into endangerment and extinction. It's also ruining the quality of our environment on a global scale (I'm sure everyone reading has heard of global warming...). Almost a quarter of the trees cut down from deforestation are converted to lumber.

deforestation's effect on habitats in Indonesia.

At Apoc, we're doing our part to minimize the effects of logging on the global environment. By upcycling reclaimed wood from expired houses around the city of Cleveland, we eliminate the need for new wood, and new trees to be cut down. By using local reclaimed wood, we also eliminate the need for outsourced materials.

The deconstruction and reclaiming process brings us closer to our Cleveland roots. We appreciate the history behind every piece of wood that enters our design shop. Reclaimed wood has a character that no other wood does. Every piece of wood is unique, and every piece that is pulled out of an old home is a gem. With every piece of furniture made, the customer gets a glimpse at the history of the unique wood from which it was constructed.

Stone carvers pose on a pylon of the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, later renamed the Hope Memorial Bridge, ca. 1931.
Photo courtesy of Case Western Reserve Archives.

So why local? Here at Apoc, we love our city. Cleveland is a place budding with new opportunities, with artists, innovators, and collaborators bringing new growth to an old city. We believe Cleveland is ready to move forward and think forward, and we're ready to march down that path.

Next time you're considering purchasing a new coffee table, or you're looking for some new dining chairs: Go reclaimed, go local. It's just one way you can do your part to save the environment and support local Cleveland businesses.

- TB